Are you a member of Costco? The Costco credit card is a good option. No annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, and great cash back. I second it. Not only that, just to get this card you should consider joining Costco. For $60 it's a bargain. In adddition to the No foreign Tx fee, great cash back (...

If you are eligible for 401(K), talk to HR and see how you can make the contribution for the maximum from your PTO/Bonus. This has to be done with no margin for error, as once the paycheck processing is done there won't be any recourse. They will hem and haw and nobody will be sure, but you need to ...

Both form 8615 and instructions for year 2018 are available on the IRS website. Here are the links: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8615.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8615.pdf Happy reading and working thru the worksheets. Thanks so much.. ;-) I was asking whether to turn into the skid or a...

I will be filing 1040 for my minor son who would have some unearned income, but no earned income. With the new TCJA, the kiddie tax calculations have changed, somewhat for the better for unearned income in the low thousands. At this time, without the help of any tax software it is difficult to get a...

Sorry to be blunt. You made the mistake of going to a lower cost of living state and spending 50% more on a home. Plus you're now in a price range that only a few can afford. Drop the price of the CHI home now. Why wait 5 more months to do that? Welcome to new construction. That delay probably won'...

And I have no pre-existing conditions. Here is a a real world example from 20+ year that happened to a neighbor of mine. Back then when you changed jobs there was a pre-existing condition clause on you new health insurance. A year or so after they changed jobs they had some sinus problems and had a...

So if either son earned less than $12K in 2018, that son´s income will not be included in your ACA household MAGI. (And this is true even if they *choose* to file a tax return in order to get a refund of their taxes.) Excellent point! Your statement in parenthesis about "even if you file a return …...

JackoC is right on target. There are many misconceptions about the ACA cliff. If you are under the cliff your healthcare is CAPPED at 9.5% of income. If you go over the cliff, w..aa..t..ch...oo..u..t... No CAP. That's why it is called a cliff. As health care expenses are typically about 25-30% of in...

47Percent, I think you are looking at this just from the ACA-eligibility perspective whereas I'm looking at the long term view. I also assumed the kids were dependents. What does that have to do with them (or the parents) contributing to a Roth (for them)? The OP would still need to lower their fam...

Them contributing to their own IRA is an option. The downside (other than them feeling it is money taken out of their hand) is that it will be taxed at ordinary income rates when withdrawn, whereas it is at near zero rate now. You need to weigh the benefits. It is to the kids' benefit to contribute...

Thanks for all the replies. My last IRA withdrawal was within the last 60 days, so I could return that and be a safe distance from the cliff. But I wouldn't have enough liquid assets to cover expenses through the end of the year. I do have a few options to cover that: 1) I have an existing HELOC (c...

The main deterrent I see for FIRE (Other than the money itself) is peer pressure and not really knowing what to do with one's time. In most social conversations, the second or third question that comes up is "what do you do".. If you tell them anything other than a position and a company name, the c...

I had to amend my 1040 in one tax year twice... i.e amend an amended return. In both the cases, there was no change to the tax owed or refund amount. Only the carry forward amounts changed. Each amendment took a couple of months to process. I had to wait for the first one to be done before filing th...

echo post above, wondering what the catch is that this is free? (just read about this service) It is not inconceivable that companies can spend some amount of money to generate good will and customer loyalty. The people who actually end up using Fidsafe will probably have significant amount with Fi...

Also $500 is a scratch. If you got rear-ended and anything got bent or broken it was close to $5000. You were lucky you didn't get hit with loss-of-use, which your card wouldn't have covered. Fidelity visa covers loss-of-use; even Amex platinum doesn't "Covered losses include: • Physical damage and...

Also $500 is a scratch. If you got rear-ended and anything got bent or broken it was close to $5000. You were lucky you didn't get hit with loss-of-use, which your card wouldn't have covered. Fidelity visa covers loss-of-use; even Amex platinum doesn't "Covered losses include: • Physical damage and...

I own a small business and have been on a small business Health Insurance plan for years. However, my staff are now either on their spouses plans, or ACA plans because it is less expensive (basically free) because of their income. They all work under 30 hours per week. $20K total health insurance e...

That particular driving situation always frustrates me. They think they’re being nice but it just creates a dangerous situation. Better they keep going and you’ll make your turn when an opening comes up naturally. I feel your pain. For those people who are "aggressively nice" (NOT..), the best way ...

It's good to see this kind of list on a MSM site. Retirees' reportedly fear running out of money more than death, and articles like this demonstrate the folly of that line of thinking. There are several places on that list that I would be very open to retiring to if the need arose. Just an FYI. Thi...

Posted a while back about a close friend who was on the verge of using his Roth IRA to payoff his debt. He is not in the greatest financial situation as far as overall wealth. However his debt is small in the grand scheme of things. Initially he tried setting up a payment plan to eliminate the debt...

what will happen if the house get transferred now to my wife and her sister through settlement in India and they sell the house only few years after their dad's death . How will that affect the taxes in India and in the US. I know that we may have to rent the house for few years and it could be a p...

All this talk about concern of over-funding 529 really perplexes me. I am really trying to understand. How much exactly folks are afraid of overfunding? $10k? $30k? $50K? If it is in the 10-20% of the total amount range, why not just transfer the amount over to a sibling or if no siblings, just make...

It is not a real surprise. The medical inflation has been close to, if not actually in, double digits for a long time. So, if you have any medical issues at all, you are very, very likely to go over the out of pocket max. The non HDHP plans come out ahead only in the narrowest cases where the expens...

So you are saying that when there is a subsequent sale by a US taxpayer the asset has a basis equal to date of death value? Gill Only for US tax reporting. For Indian tax reporting, the basis still remains as original purchase price. But whether sold by original owner or by inheritor, in India real...

47percent, you appear very knowledgeable about the tax treaty with India. Are you certain there is a stepup in basis for an India decedent? Gill You are right. There is no step-up in India for inheritance.. but you do get the benefit of the inflation indexing right from the time of original purchas...

We don't have any loans in our family -- no mortgage, no car loans, no HELOCs, no student loans. We do have revolving credit in the form of credit cards, both for the 1-3% cash back rewards for everyday stuff, and the necessity to use them under the usual mandatory circumstances (travel, etc.). I d...

Dear Bogleheads, I am looking to get some advice on the tax consequence of inheriting international property. My father-in-law is a citizen of India. As he is aging, we are in the process of moving him to an assisted living home. He is thinking of transferring the house to his children (my wife and...

Hi Everyone, I searched for several threads but couldn't find discussion on why SSN is needed for estate planning. Please do let me know if there has been discussion on this topic and I apologize for the inconvenience that it may have caused. I don't have an existing estate plan so I set up an appo...

As someone who works in higher education, I cannot say healthcare is a good analogy to higher ed. Unregulated free market solutions generally work well when + All relevant information is widely available + All the potential consumers are perfectly capable of understanding the information + They hav...

Maybe the 401k custodian will post next, "Hey BHs, we lost this guy's 401k contributions, what do we do?" :D I have been resisting my temptation to click on the following click bait I see 10 times a day, for at least a year. "If you own a home, forget your 401(k) and do this instead" Gives a new me...

I can see how that would be the case if the potential subsidy was large enough to pay more than 100% cost,or is there something else going on? It is because quirk in a way the prices are set -- not fully in the control of the insurance companies. The subsidies are based on the silver plan prices. A...

It may not be quite ready this year -- although I have seen a couple of ads for those. But from next year on I expect many fund houses to be offering Opportunity zone qualified investments that allow you to defer cap gains until later years. This is part of the TCJA provisions, but there hasn't been...

We do not need social security till required at age 70. However, someone told me my wife can take half my social security payments at age 66. Is there any downside to this? If her full retirement age (FRA) is 66 years, that is technically correct. But FRA depends on her year of birth as it has been...

Is this really going somewhere? HR-6311 The article claims it has been passed in the house. I am not sure if it has a path in the senate and ultimately getting signed! https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/08/01/house-passes-law-that-would-double-hsa-contributio/?slreturn=20180809002810 Among other thing...

There are many prior threads on this topic. You should search for those. The threads always end up being shut down because they become too political. I don't believe we really need to debate their merits again in a new thread. Ditto.. Ditto.. Ditto... Medishare has the dubious distinction of being ...

Does anyone know any reputed shop offering these for investors. I am wary of these completely unknown names. I understand some investor qualification may be necessary. These are the newly created tax vehicles for deferring, or possibility reducing/eliminating capital gains. If this were to be availa...

One thing that would help me to make this calculator as useful as possible: if you have input about how you want these features to be implemented, that would be helpful. For instance, with regard to any of the above features, what would you like the user interface to look like? Thanks for your real...

To some of us, the credit score nonsense is just that, nonsense. I too pay cash for everything, large and small, and any credit is paid off by month end. I too will never have to borrow again. For years and years, my credit score has bumped within 5 points of 813 like a car driving down a gravel ro...

You, being a Boglehead, should know money doesn't grow on trees. More importantly, it is a zero sum game. It's got to come from somewhere. What the FA gets comes from the client being "advised". So, you can get your own certification and do this pro-bono and help out some folks. But I suspect, they ...

2. I will no longer be able to contribute the full $5,500 into ROTH IRA x 2 (his and hers) due to his SIMPLE IRA balance. At 4% interest rate, 25% effective tax rate, 10 year-duration, I estimated the present value of this loss of benefit to be $20K I don't quite understand point 2. Also re: studen...

So we paid off our house and land, RV and all a few weeks ago in one fell swoop... got an email with a sad face saying my credit score has dropped. Lol. Credit score = debt score. I think its crazy how lenders us a debt score to justify you worthy of paying back money to them... It should be comple...

I have a HDHP/HSA through work with my spouse included on the HDHP. We recently obtained a HSA card for her to use and it has her maiden name on it. My previous HSA card provider issued a card for her with my name on it. I was wondering if anyone knows if it matters what name is on the spouse's car...

My question is, once we have used the money in my wife's HRA (which will be depleted by end of the year) should we be looking at using my HSA to cover future baby medical costs, like the delivery? Or should we pay those costs out of pocket and reimburse ourselves later in the distant future, like I...

I am going by the Social Security Made Simple book by bogglehead Mike Piper. Under the "Calculating Widower benefit section", he states the following: ===================== If the deceased spouse had claimed benefits earlier than FRA, the surviving souse's widow(er) benefit, rather than being based ...

I understand that with all the recent changes, most of us don't have the option to do file and suspend, and come under the "deemed filed" rule. We fall under the new rules; so no file and suspend for us. My question is how it applies to the survivor benefit. Let's say I claim early based on my work ...